Customer Reviews

The Pseudonomicon

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The Pseudonomicon by Phil Hine is a great and interesting book attempting to combine Cthulhu with chaos magick. The reviewer who took this book as satire doesn't seem to be familiar with the writer's other works (such as Prime Chaos), or even to have read the book.

Hine knows full well that the Cthulhu Mythos is purely fictional (and has been very caustic about the various fake Necronomicons that have been published). But, as he points out, just because Cthulhu doesn't exist doesn't mean that you can't use the Mythos as your reference point for magick.

Read up on what chaos magick is all about and it'll make more sense. Yes the book is funny, but it's certainly NOT mocking the idea of magick. Hine is a practitioner of some note. Taking it seriously is beside the point. Take it humourously, and use it anyway.

The irrepressible Phil Hine does it again. Don't be fooled into applying ordinary categories to this author. Satyrical or serious, both and neither. Naive New-Age relativism, hardly.

I had the pleasure of getting to know him a little in the early 1990s. Phil will challenge you to drop the crutches of your current belief system, and stand on your own. If you can knowingly work with a fictitious system, you will come to see how much of your ordinary perception is likewise a fiction. Assumptions, preconceptions, prejudices, all become suspect.

All you are left with is the diamond hard core of reality.

Sweyn Plowright
author of
The Rune Primer

A short read that breezes you effectively into Chaos magick. I should warn you however that this book may shake your foundations and give you a different view of magic then what you are used to. Getting to know the deities of the Ctullu mythos is a process that may well lead to madness. But then again why practice magic if you are not ready to have your visions of reality challenged and deconstructed. To fully know the gods is to let their madness was over you. Ctullu is a giant octopus being that dwells in the deeps of the ocean in a city called Ryeleh. When he opens one of his eyes from his sleep it send a psychic ripple across the planet. But if you read HP Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror or Mountains of Madness you would realize that these deities care not a whit for human kind and you may ask yourself why you would wanna work wit such entities?

Phil Hine is a leader in the Chaos Magic community he launches into a short pamphlet sized book on some ways you can work with these deities, advantages and who these deities are. The cool thing I like about Chaos magick is that it is a form of freestyle magic that is based on using techniques that work for you and totally throws out the dogma. Who needs dogma and since when does it bring success or liberation. Most successful people have broken away from dogma and done their own thing. Freethinking.

Working with Ctullu mythos is uncharted territory no one has written extensive works on how to work with these deities. So there is plenty of room to experiment and find what works for you. While it is not said in so many words workibng with the mythos is really about self transformation and change. By merging with these deities into their world you cast spells to change yourself and evolve. To reach these deities you have to go to lonely desolate places usually out there in nature. This is not like the Golden Dawn Temple where you need to practice indoors for best results. Reaching and working with these deities may well involve using means of achieving ecstasy to reach gnosis. Several techniques to reach gnosis are discussed. Techniques include words of power, shape shifting, dream control, slipping into fear and personality deconstruction. Practice this and it will change your life.

Who are these deities in the Ctullu mythos and who would want to worship deities that are in reality fictitious and are the product of HP Lovecraft's imagination. The first being discussed is Yog Soggoth. He is the gate keeper of the Great Old Ones.He is your first experience when dealing with the old ones. Coming into contact with this being may invoke fear and it is this phase that is called "Fear The Beast" It is essential that one try to feel their fear and ananlyze every detail of it. In other words feel it 100 percent. Azazoth is called the blind idiot god. Comparable to a blob with an eye in the Middle. He takes on many forms and then slips back into formlessness, He churns the surface and forms the shapes. This entity challenges us to foranm inner vision and not stay with any form permanently. Azazoth is an experience. Nyalerthrop is the man dressed in black who attends the witches sabbat. He is the gate way to the gods and work with him develops your magician self. Ctullu is already described. Shub Niggurath is the goat of the woods and very reminiscent to pan the goat god. He is the genius loci of the local wild place. Now why work with fictitious deities? A systems effectiveness cannot be measured solely in terms of inner coherence but effectiveness is increased the more one believes in the the system. belief is the central factor. believe in it and it works.

This is a fun book that will help lead ti radical change if adhered to properly which means do what works for you. Most of us use banishing rituals before and after. This sets the mood for a magical working yet one can use other means for entering into the magical mind set. For example silence of soft music can be used to enter into the state as well as to exit the state. Yet what if the magic is still lingering maybe you do not want to banish it right away maybe you wanna discuss or find a less abrupt means of banishing it. It is freestyle magic you do what works for you even if you cannot fully communicate what you have experienced because it is for you only. I enjoyed reading the Feat of ghouls. I will not go into descritptions save that you will wanna check this out yourself. The Most powerful mind cling to the fewest fixed principles.

I cannot believe there are "NEC" books that are associating Lovecraft Mythos gods to the Nephilim
beings, aligning Cthulhu with the planet Mars, and one book actually saying they will save mankind. The only thing Cthulhu will save you for is his lunch ! (not original - but true)
Mr Hine brings the Lovecraftian gods in their rightful state as chaotic entities who can only be dealt with by being in a shamanic state and with Lucid Dreaming. They are wild and viscious and for magicians using the old golden dawn rituals, no redemption will come but a dance with the abyss.Using experience with that tired old albatross the Kabbalah as your guide will send you to your final home in the howling pit of insanity. Mr Hine's book is the only sane way to deal with these Elder and Old beings. So read it and no others.
Also do not use incence as the smell of Lovecraftian beings is the first recognition of their appearence.

Those enamored of the "Culthulu Mythos" with the intent of ritual working would benefit from a reading of Simon's "Gates." As an admirer of Hine's "Stealing Fire from Heaven," I am disappointed in this cavalier approach to the most ancient recorded magical tradition on the planet. If, as Hine says in SFFH, the system of cabala is an "albatross," then the system of the Necronomicon is a pterodactyl. Inquire diligently into one's reflex to deride the Necronomicon as a fiction. Attend to Simon's response to the hyena-like ridicule of his detractors in "The Book of Dead Names," the story of the Necronomicon's translation. Go further and contemplate the primeval politics of the mythos - in light of it's popular fascination. If then you cannot be content with your own powers, and must proceed, then observe the steps, the times and the offerings - and Simon's advice generally. A.O. Spare spoke of "...Magicians, whose insincerity is their safety..." with some derision. Having witnessed the (spectacular) results of botched working in the Necronomicon tradition, I wish any and every measure of safety for those who are drawn to it. But insincerity offers an unreliable defense.

the Cthulhu Mythos IS real !!!

i bought and read this book years ago. i may not have agreed with everything Hine wrote (personal aesthetics will, of course, differ), but it was fruitful for the next steps i would take... this being the Cult of Cthulhu. just as inspirational as LaVey's Satanic Bible.

yes, the Pseudonomicon became the slimy foundation for our bible, Cthulhu Cult. if you enjoy Lovecraft's FACTUAL cosmology, then definitely take a look. the simon Necronomicon can go to Hell by comaprison.


Venger As'Nas Satanis
Cult of Cthulhu High Priest

The previous reviewer mentions the author's assertion that just because Cthulhu (et al) does not exist it doesn't mean you cannot use Mythos symbology as a reference point for Magick

Following that rather naive approach then we can conclude that if Will alone is to be trusted, then the receipt of those horrid McNuggets would be enough to open the gates of reality and shape the world at will. Or better yet, scrap the receipt and use Will alone.

This is a very dangerous approach to things and in no way is it different to the pseudoscientific "shape reality" hogwash preached in that movie "what the *bleep* do we know", curiously enough financed by the Ramtha School of enlightenment. The only good thing to come out of these wild theories is the number of Darwin Awards that come with the cleansing of the gene pool.

Interesting book if you're interested in this type of stuff, though. Check it out.

Book in excellent condition. Mr. Hine's information was concise and well-formatted. Author has great knowledge in his field and delivered the data in a way a beginner or lay person could understand.

This book, The Pseudonomicon, takes the mystery our to serious study of HP Lovecrafts mythos.

It puts everything in a clear perspective so that the "magician' is free for undue and over superstitius harm.

I admire Lovecraft's writing---AS FICTION. Which is what THIS IS.

What many readers just do not grasp is that this book is a highbrow satire. It is written to parody the idea of magic, not endorse it.
The Cthuthlu Mythos is derived from short stories & novels by one H.P. Lovecraft. Short stories & novels--ya know? F*I*C*T*I*O*N?
The fact that several reviewers have taken this SERIOUSLY gives me the giggles! :D
And I am astounded by the number of "interesting" people who cannot distinguish between reality & fantasy.

BTW-- "pseudo" means "fake" or "false". As in "a phoney book of magic".

HEY! RATIONAL PEOPLE! Toss me a few votes, to off-set the loonies!